According to an independent survey conducted by security company Claroty, 4 in 5 organisations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region have been impacted by ransomware. Over half paid ransom, as revealed by the Global State of Industrial Cybersecurity 2021: Resilience Amid Disruption.

Recently, companies in the food and beverage industry were targeted by large-scale cyberattacks. In 2021, global meat processor JBS paid about $11 million in ransom to resolve a cyberattack. Recently, U.K.-based KP Snacks were also under attack, crippling IT and communication systems and affecting supply of popular British snacks until at least the end of March.

These high-profile cyberattacks on critical infrastructure have driven many organisations to increase investment in ensuring their systems can withstand ransomware and other similar attacks. In APAC, about 90% have accelerated digital transformation, which includes updating processes, controls and operational systems.

Respondents have reported $500,000 to $5 million per hour of lost revenue during a downtime event caused by a cyberattack. This is besides paying ransom fees, which range from $100,000 to $1 million.

Claroty CEO Yaniv Vardi said: “Our research shows that critical infrastructure security is at a pivotal juncture, where threats are proliferating and evolving, but there’s also a growing collective interest and desire in protecting our most essential systems. Security leaders looking to take their programs to the next level must account for all cyber-physical systems in their risk governance practices, segmenting their IT and OT networks and assets, extending their general IT cybersecurity practices to their OT devices, and consistently monitoring for threats across all networks.”